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Former Cuban Leader Fidel Castro Dies at 90; New Insights Into Trumps Lawsuits; Interview with Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; Russia Reacting to Fidel Castro's Death; What It's Like to Live in Trump Tower; Spy Planes Gather Key Intel Over Middle East. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired November 26, 2016 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:40] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, Saturday morning is always better when you're around. Thank you for being with us. I'm Christi Paul.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Martin Savidge in for Victor Blackwell. It's 9:00 in the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out West. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

And now we go to Havana, Cuba where the mood is somber and sad.

PAUL: CNN's Patrick Oppmann is live from Havana. He is the only U.S. TV correspondent in Cuba. And he of course is there talking about the death of Fidel Castro.

This picture you're seeing right there, the last public picture that we have of Fidel Castro that was taken just 10 days ago.

Patrick, here is what I want our viewers to understand is so extraordinary about your presence there. This happened overnight. Many people there were watching television. They -- some people don't have Internet. So when you asked them their reaction for -- about the death of Fidel Castro, you were essentially telling them at that moment he died. They did not know. That is an extraordinary position to be in. Help us understand what their reactions were.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I have to say having lived here for five years you run through how this is all going to play out, with the scenario you expect of this major news event that you expect one day to cover. Never did I think that it would involve me telling Cubans that this really icon of their entire life, someone who has affected for the good and the bad just about every Cuban who lives here, that I would be the one informing them that he passed on.

But for the people I talked along Havana's sea front and down in old Havana where I am tonight -- where I am right now, they didn't -- they hadn't heard anything and they were just shocked and immediately it was like air coming out of a balloon. People didn't know what to say and they really couldn't believe that after so many years despite his ailing health, despite so many rumors, despite so many months sometimes where Fidel Castro would be out of sight that he, in fact, passed away. It reminded me of something that Castro said in an interview years ago

that because of all these fake reports over the years, of all the attempts on his life, that when he finally did die nobody would believe it. And it wasn't quite that. People believed it. But they really didn't know how to almost compute it.

I think many people, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, wondered if the day would ever come. But that day is today and it does feel like it changed Cuba.

SAVIDGE: And now what are the plans going forward as far as mourning his death?

OPPMANN: The mourning has already begun. It will be a nine-day period of mourning. I'm told that not far from where we are now that Havana's Revolution Square work is already under way and that that will be one of the centers for people to go and pay their respects. We anticipate that perhaps Fidel Castro's ashes once he's cremated can be displayed there and you can see -- when they brought back Che Guevara, I covered that here, and hundreds of thousands people walked by his casket.

So I think we'll see some of those images. And then after these large gatherings in Havana where we expect thousands of people to show up, then they would transport Fidel Castro's ashes down the entire length of the island just about people paying their respects all along the way. A very controversial leader but today many in Cuba are mourning.

PAUL: All right. Patrick Oppmann, thank you so much for bringing us that perspective there from Cuba. We appreciate it.

Want to go straight to Chris Moody who is in Little Havana Miami and a very different atmosphere there.

SAVIDGE: Cuban Americans there are obviously celebrating Castro's death. And Chris, what are people telling you there this morning?

CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly the opposite of mourning. It has been celebration all through the night. I arrived here about 4:00 a.m. and people were dancing in the streets, pouring into the roads. The police blocked the streets. They just maybe an hour ago opened this back up and now it's a celebration on the sidewalk with cars honking all along.

This is the epicenter of the Cuban exile community here in Miami. I had a chance to talk to some people who were born in Cuba about what they thought about Fidel Castro's death. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been waiting for 56 years for this night and I thank God it happened the day after Thanksgiving.

[09:05:02] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So this is a very important day for me because you know what, my grandfather suffered a lot to see the man that took everything from him, to see him dead today. So, you know what, this is an emotional day for me today as a Cuban American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOODY: So for many of these people, they've seen their livelihoods taken away or maybe their father or grandparents, and so this is a day of jubilation for them after their experience in Cuba and coming back to the United States. Now they are realistic about the future. They know that just because Fidel Castro has passed away, Cuba is not going to change overnight. But for now, they're taking the time to celebrate something they waited a long time for. Back to you.

PAUL: Chris, I don't know if you can hear me, but I understand that your family has a connection here. Your in-laws are from Cuba. Have you talked to them this morning since learning of his death and what is their reaction? What are their hopes and their thoughts about it?

MOODY: My phone has been blowing up with a text chain with about 100 text messages from them about this. They're elated at the news but of course like others here realistic about change. They returned to Cuba last December for the first time in more than 50 years, especially my grandmother-in-law who is 84 years old at the time had not been there in so long and was devastated by how much it had changed as she saw it for the worse. And so I think today seeing this news they are breathing a bit of a sigh of relief.

SAVIDGE: They have any thoughts as to what the future may bring for the island and maybe their return? Do they have any desire to go back?

MOODY: I imagine they will plan to go back. They do have family on the island that they met for the first time on the last trip in December. So I think there's a strong desire to get to know them a little bit better and help support them as best they can. And I think that's the case for a lot of people here in the United States who are Cuban Americans. They have loved ones back on the island and they want to support them and help them in any way possible. And the open lines of communication and diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba in some ways could possibly make it easier for that to be accomplished.

SAVIDGE: I hope it does. Chris Moody, thank you very much from the view from Miami.

PAUL: Yes. It was noisy and I didn't know if he could hear us, but I didn't want to take away his time to tell his story, you know, and his connection there even though I apologize to the viewers because obviously I'm sure that it was very noisy there as well. But it certainly gives --

SAVIDGE: He's not the only one, though, that's got that personal connection.

PAUL: Yes. Gave us a good context as to how it feels for some of them.

Donald Trump, by the way, we want to point out is reacting to the death of Fidel Castro in his own way. And moving forward, the question is what does Castro's death mean for U.S.-Cuba relations for President-elect Donald Trump. What step will he take now. We'll talk about that. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:11:08] Donald Trump is in Mar-a-Lago right now. He took to Twitter for his response to the death of Cuba's Fidel Castro saying briefly, "Fidel Castro is dead," the exclamation point might actually be the most insightful point of that statement.

Joining us live from Palm Beach is CNN national correspondent Ryan Nobles -- Ryan.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Martin, I think you're right. If we're going to read anything into that tweet, just one line from the president-elect about the death of Fidel Castro, it is that exclamation point seemed to be a celebratory tweet from Donald Trump. And of course, this starts to raise questions as to exactly how the Trump administration will deal with Cuba, especially in the wake of these now two-year old executive actions by President Obama that are attempting to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

Of course there's an important thing to point out here, while Donald Trump has been very critical of the Cuban deal, he has said that he is open to creating some sort of a normal relationship between the two nations. But he said that this deal is weak and because it was done through executive action without any type of congressional approval, there's a lot that Trump can do to change the situation between Cuba and the United States.

And listen to how he talked about this issue on the campaign trail in Miami back in September.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT: All of the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro regime were done through executive order which means the next president can reverse them and that I will do unless the Castro regime meets our demands, not my demands, our demands. You know what the demands are. Those demands will include religious and political freedom for the Cuban people and the freeing of political prisoners.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: So essentially Donald Trump has said that he is going to the Cuban government and demand more than what the Obama administration asked of them when they crafted this deal two years ago. We'll have to see if that turns into reality now and if the negotiations are changed now that Fidel Castro is dead. That is going to be one of the things to keep a very close eye on in the early days of the Trump administration -- Martin and Christi.

PAUL: Right, Ryan. But I know as we want to look -- we look ahead but a little more closely to just next week. I know that Trump is going to be back in New York tomorrow. He's got a lot of meetings as he is trying to establish his Cabinet. What are you learning about what's on tap?

NOBLES: Yes, I mean, that's a great point, Christi. You know, this -- the death of Fidel Castro to a certain extent was not something that the Trump team had been planning on. And they have a very busy week next week that has to do with building this administration. They have a lot of work to do in that arena. Of course we're waiting to see what's going to happen with some of these major Cabinet posts like secretary of State for instance.

And on Monday, Trump has eight different people coming to Trump Tower to meet with, he and the Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Perhaps the most notable is Sheriff David Clarke. He's the sheriff of Milwaukee County. He is an African-American. He's a Democrat but he spoke at the Republican National Convention and was a pretty big supporter of Trump's. He is especially critical of the Black Lives Matter movement and there are -- there is a distinct possibility that he is being considered as the next secretary of Homeland Security. So we'll have to see what happens next week.

PAUL: All right. Ryan Nobles, thank you so much for the update. We appreciate it.

NOBLES: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: As you just heard during the campaign, Donald Trump threatened to undo efforts by President Obama to bring the U.S. and Cuba closer together. Here is more of what Trump said in September.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The president's one-sided deal for Cuba and with Cuba benefits only the Castro regime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:15:04] SAVIDGE: So the question is, will Trump follow through on plans to roll back the Cuba-related policies of Barack Obama?

Joining us on the phone is Peter Kornbluh, he's the director of the Cuba Project at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. He's also the co-author of "Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana," and he personally knew Fidel Castro.

So, thank you first, sir, for joining us. What's your reaction to the news of former President Castro's death?

PETER KORNBLUH, DIRECTOR, CUBA PROJECT, NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE: Well, it's a loss to history because he was, love him or hate him, a historic figure. A historic figure in his own country, historic figure in the third world, certainly a historic figure in the Latin American relations with United States, being the one Latin American leader whose country under him was stood up to the colossus of the north as United States is seen elsewhere. And he was the surviving member of the three leaders, Kennedy and

Khrushchev, from the Cuban missile crisis, the commandant at the Bay of Pigs, et cetera, so he was a font of history and that's a great loss to those of us like myself who are historians.

He also never really got a chance to talk about his own efforts secretly behind the scenes using back channels to try and improve relations with the United States. Only after he stepped down from power with his brother be able to do that. So that history is lost as well.

SAVIDGE: Interesting.

PAUL: You know, one of the things that people look at in Donald Trump is his acumen for business, perhaps his ability to negotiate. Do you see that being a positive here in terms of how Donald Trump may be conversing with Raul Castro now? I mean, you knew Fidel Castro but what about Raul and how that will move forward with this new administration?

KORNBLUH: Well, Cuba -- to quote the title of a new book by Richard Feinberg, is quote, "open for business," and what Obama has tried to do in these last two years since his dramatic announcement with Raul Castro, after two years before that of secret diplomacy, is establish these very strong bridges of commerce and culture. He's authorized direct airline flights, for example, to Cuba and tens of thousands of U.S. citizens are flying on those flights.

And so now you have the airline industry involved in lobbying for, you know, good, normal relations with Cuba so they can make money. You have the hotel industry starting to get a foothold in Havana to support all those tourists and they're going to be lobbying as well, as well as the agricultural companies, the travel companies, et cetera.

So we're -- the hope is of course is that the businessman side of the Donald Trump will kind of supersede the political side of Donald Trump and that he will realize that the United States is pursuing its interests, particularly its commercial interests with Cuba as well as its overall political interest by establishing a policy of engagement as opposed to a policy of hostility which during the Fidel Castro years never really gained anything for, you know, the Cuban people or U.S. interests abroad.

PAUL: All right. Peter Kornbluh, thank you for sharing your insight and your perspective with us. We certainly are grateful.

KORNBLUH: Thank you so much.

PAUL: Take good care.

SAVIDGE: Well, as Donald Trump's American litigator-in-chief, we're getting new insight into president-elect's most controversial lawsuit. That's to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:22:39] SAVIDGE: There's no question Donald Trump will be involved in a lot of lawsuits. Now we have new insights as to why that is. It has to do with a bare knuckle bravado that he picked up more than 40 years ago from a legendary legal brawler who told a then young Donald Trump when in doubt fight them in court.

Here is CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I moved on her like a bitch.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The "Access Hollywood" tape and the barrage of accusations of nearly a dozen women of sexual misconduct didn't exactly humble Donald Trump.

TRUMP: The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election.

TODD: Trump also threatened to sue NBC for the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape. He's threatened to sue "The New York Times" for reporting two of the accusers' accounts and for publishing several pages of his 1995 tax return.

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND COLUMNIST, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Donald Trump lovers to sue and he has, and then he loves to threaten to sue because it scares people. Threatening to sue people and run up their legal bills is terrifying. And that's a tactic that he's used. I can threaten to sue you. I have more lawyers than you do. You will lose.

TODD: According to an analysis by "USA Today," at least 70 lawsuits involving the president-elect are still open and overall he's been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits. The general counsel for the Trump Organization tells CNN those numbers are grossly exaggerated, nowhere near accurate, but Trump did just settle three class action suits over claims of fraud at Trump University for $25 million.

Trump's bare knuckle legal philosophy goes back at least to the early 1970s. The Justice Department was suing Trump, his father Fred and their company for allegedly discriminating against minorities who wanted to rent apartments from them. Around that time, according to the book "Trump Revealed," Donald Trump had a fateful first meeting with a New York legend.

MARC FISHER, CO-AUTHOR, "TRUMP REVEALED": In a very down moment, Donald Trump went to a nightclub in Manhattan called La Club where he happened to meet Roy Cohn who is famous for having defended Senator Joseph McCarthy back in the 1950s in the communist hunting days.

TODD: From McCarthy to the mobsters he represented, Roy Cohn was a battler. Cohn's message to Trump in that nightclub conversation, tell the government to, quote, "go to hell."

FISHER: In that very first meeting Cohn laid out for him his philosophy of how to fight back in a lawsuit, how to fight back against a federal investigation, and that was to hit back 10 times harder.

TODD: If Trump sues the women who accused him, analysts say his legal claims are debatable, potential pitfalls numerous.

[09:25:07] RICHARD LEVICK, CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST: What about the depositions? It's one thing to sue, but then you have to defend. He's going to have to answer questions.

TODD: And it could lead to something politically dangerous for Donald Trump as his presidency leaves the gate.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Bill Clinton of course got into litigation with Paula Jones regarding things that happened when he was governor of Arkansas and that ultimately as a result of statements that he made under oath led to impeachment charges being brought against him. And that's a good example for Mr. Trump to look at.

TODD (on camera): Will Donald Trump follow through on his threat to sue nearly a dozen women who have accused him of sexual misconduct? The general counsel of the Trump Organization, Allen Garten, told me the president-elect is focused on running the country, pursuing his political agenda, and removing distractions.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, the reaction to the death of Fidel Castro, it depends on the age of the person hearing the news.

Next, one family three generations and the different ways in which they view the former Cuban leader.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So glad to have your company this Saturday. I'm Christi Paul.

SAVIDGE: And I'm Martin Savidge in for Victor Blackwell. We're covering the breaking news. Former Cuban leader, Fidel Castro's death.

That news is being read with mixed feelings. In Cuba the mood somber and sad and people wake up -- as they wake up and learn about Castro's death.

This is the last official picture of Castro that was taken earlier this month.

PAUL: In little Havana in Miami, however, take a look at what's happening there this hour. People are celebrating in the streets. They've been waving flags and cheering all night overnight as they heard of his passing.

SAVIDGE: Even for Cubans who have long since fled their homeland, Fidel Castro and his rule over that country remains a very emotionally charged issue. PAUL: Our Ed Lavandera sat down with two generations of a Cuban

American family to get their take on the Castro regime.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[09:20:07] ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's dinner time for the Garrido family. We asked the Garridos to sit down for a conversation about Fidel Castro and Cuba to capture how Cuban American families have evolved more than 50 years after Castro rose to power.

When Jorge Garrido came to the United States in 1960 at age 19, he had hopes back then of crushing Fidel Castro's dictatorship.

JORGE GARRIDO, CUBAN EXILE: I was adamant at that time. Now, you know, I guess everybody is tired.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Everybody is tired.

J. GARRIDO: Everyone is tired because nothing has been done. We lost a lot of opportunities.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Jorge and his wife Lourdes have now lived in the United States longer than they ever lived in Cuba. Fidel Castro is a figure that forever changed their lives.

LOURDES GARRIDO, CUBAN EXILE: What can I tell you about Fidel. I mean, like he said, Fidel is Fidel. He's a non-issue at this point and I don't think he will ever change. When Fidel goes, the regimen will be the same with different people, younger people. Maybe I'm wrong. I wish I am.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Are you as angry today toward him that you were 40, 50 years ago?

L. GARRIDO: I mean, you know, life makes you change. Like the way you think. When I came here, I was too young. But he destroyed our lives, you know? Most of my life has been here, not in my country. So in that sense it has affected me a lot because I missed all the good things about Cuba.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): But the American-born children of Cuban exiles like Alexa and Maite view Cuba differently.

MAITE GARRIDO, CUBAN AMERICAN: I feel Cuban but it's an abstract for me. It's a culture, it's a tradition. It's family. It's what you do. For them, it's more raw. For me, it's -- I don't like Castro. I would love to see a democracy there and I think most Americans probably would, but what they feel is obviously going to be much greater.

L. GARRIDO: Yes, because we had to live through the Bay of Pigs invasion where we both lost -- yes. A lot of friends, you know, close friends. I remember clearly the October crisis of the measles.

LAVANDERA: The talk turned toward what could have been done differently in the last 50 years to bring political change to Cuba. It's not something the younger generation thinks of as much. Time has softened Cuban American support of the trade embargo, but Jorge and Lourdes are still adamant that Castro's regime must go.

J. GARRIDO: The dinosaurs, if you want to call it, the cronies, they are in power right now, they don't want to let go and they should have let go a long time ago if they were really true patriots. Yes. I'm very angry at that because we had a beautiful country.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Did you guys think that you'd be at this age and not going back to Cuba?

J. GARRIDO: I did not.

L. GARRIDO: I thought we were going sooner, but apparently we're stuck here.

(LAUGHTER)

LAVANDERA: I understand what you meant. It's not a bad place to be stuck.

L. GARRIDO: Right. You're right.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The day may soon come where the Garridos all visit Cuba together, at least that remains the hope.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Let's bring in Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and she was born in Havana. She fled Fidel Castro's regime with her family when she was just 8 years old and she is the first Cuban American elected to Congress.

Representative Lehtinen, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us.

REP. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN (R), FLORIDA: No. Thank you much.

PAUL: Of course.

ROS-LEHTINEN: We knew this day would happen and it finally did.

PAUL: You say it as though you are celebrating. You've been very open on your Twitter account this morning. You tweeted at one point after so many decades of oppression, the tyrant Castro is dead and a new beginning can finally dawn on Cuba and its people. How quickly do you think we may actually see some substantive change for the people of Cuba?

ROS-LEHTINEN: Well, first of all, it's not that I'm celebrating his death nor the constituents I'm so humble to represent, many of whom, the majority whom are Cuban exiles or second generation of them, but we're celebrating the opportunity to begin that new dawn, to have a new day for the people of Cuba. But as the -- meet the new boss same as the old boss because that transition from Fidel to his younger brother and that's kind of euphemistic just a few years younger, Raul, has already taken place and Raul is just as authoritarian dictator as his brother was.

So there's no human rights. There are no free elections. There are no political parties. There's no free dissent, nobody would be brave enough to even hold a sign saying, amen, the dictator is dead or even -- I mean, they just wouldn't even think of it because you'd be in jail.

[09:35:10] In fact, we have reports from human rights dissidents on the island that they have been rounding up the usual suspects, the Cuban regime keeps a tight grip. And what we're hoping is that President-elect Trump will make good on his promise, as he says that he will roll back the new -- the changes that President Obama made which are just concessions to the Castro regime and we hope that he will do so very quickly after taking office.

SAVIDGE: Congresswoman, this is Martin Savidge here, and thank you again for joining us. You talk about rolling back the progress that President Obama has done. There are a lot of businesses, business people that have -- Americans invested in this and now will lose as a result. Is it really the wisest policy?

ROS-LEHTINEN: Well, not really because the changes that the president -- President Obama made have more to do with increasing tourism. The tourism on the island of Cuba is run and administered by and owned by state security and military forces.

When we talk about private businesses, the hotel might have the name of a private business, but it's really owned and operated by the Castro regime. You don't have private property in Cuba. You don't have private businesses. So it gives you the feeling that these business enterprises are going to help the Cuban people, but in fact what we've seen after President Obama's changes is a record number of Cuban refugees fleeing the island, coming to the United States, because once they saw that helping hand of the U.S. government being extended to their oppressor, they say, oh, man, there's no future here for me. I'm going to the country where Fidel is always called the devil.

So that's what we've seen, more repression, more money for the Cuban regime to beat up the peaceful dissidents.

PAUL: You know, we are watching some live pictures here from Miami of a lot of the people who are celebrating Fidel Castro's death and who say they're doing so because they're hoping for a better future as you're talking about. We're just coming out of one of the most divisive elections this country has ever seen.

Help people understand, if you would, please, what it was like in Cuba? Do you get the sense that people take for granted our freedoms here in this country?

ROS-LEHTINEN: Well, you know, few people are more loving of this great country than Cuban exiles like me. I have to flee with my family when I was 8 years old and thank goodness America opened up its arms and its heart to us. And I live in a community that is filled with victims of the Castro legacy.

When Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada -- I've been reading his sickening love letter to a dead Fidel Castro and I'm thinking, sure, you did not lose a loved one to an execution squad. You did not lose a loved one to the gulags in Cuba. Maybe you didn't -- maybe you didn't want to vote in a Cuban election because there are no political parties in Cuba. There's no right to dissent. There's no free press. None of the freedoms that you celebrate in Canada or the United States are present in Cuba.

So a lot of these foreign -- these foreign leaders have looked on the dictatorship in Cuba as some kind of interesting zoo exhibit. But for us, the Cuban exile community, this has been hitting very close to our hearts because we lost our native homeland to communism. We hold Fidel Castro responsible for that and Raul Castro as well. So the death of one dictator will not bring in -- usher a new wave of change because the rulers of Cuba, whether it's Fidel, Raul, whatever names you give them, they just rule over Cuba with an iron fist and it's hard for freedom-loving Americans to understand what a dictatorship is all about.

We tend to think that, oh, well, inside they're really good and we talk about their health care, their education, and we don't look at the real record which is the only thing that Fidel has been successful in has not been health care nor education or human rights nor democracy, it's just holding on to power and that's easy to do when you don't have elections.

SAVIDGE: Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, thank you very much for joining us.

ROS-LEHTINEN: Thank you, Martin. Thank you so much.

SAVIDGE: Appreciate very much your personal insights as well as your professional ones.

PAUL: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Fidel Castro leaves behind a very different Cuba than the one that he held power over for some 47 years. Up next, we'll talk about those years of defiance and the renewed U.S.-Cuban relations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:43:21] PAUL: Well, this morning former president Jimmy Carter is reacting to the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In a statement Carter says, "Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We remember fondly our visits with him in Cuba and his love of his country. We wish the Cuban citizens peace and prosperity in the years ahead."

SAVIDGE: We are also hearing from Texas Senator Ted Cruz. He says, quote, "Fidel Castro's death cannot bring back his thousands of victims nor can it bring comfort to their families. Today we remember them and honor the brave souls who fought the lonely fight against the brutal communist dictatorship he imposed on Cuba."

Former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty now joins us from the Russian capital this morning. It was a very long and storied relationship, of course, between Cuba and Russia. So what's being said from there now?

JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: You know, Martin, I think you'd have to say it's really nostalgia with perhaps some hints at what's going on currently in Russia. But really I think nostalgia because after all Russia and Cuba, Soviet Union and Cuba, were allies for more than half a century and the memory of Fidel Castro both as like an old revolutionary who stuck to his guns coming from the small island, standing up to the big United States. That's a lot of the coverage that you're seeing here on Russian TV.

Now President Putin did, of course, have comments. He expressed his condolences and said that Castro was a symbol of an era, a sincere and reliable friend of Russia whose memory will live forever in the hearts of Russian citizens.

[09:45:10] And Russian citizens, in fact, went over here in Moscow to the Cuban embassy laying flowers. There were actually some people who were crying, saying that they remembered Fidel Castro from their earliest childhood, and again saying, you know, here was a guy who stood up to the United States.

And you found that also, Martin, reflected in comments in fact by one Russian politician who said -- and I think you can draw the comparison here with President Vladimir Putin, which is, sanctions he said don't work. International isolation doesn't work. And that happens if you have a strong leader. So I think it's playing on many levels. And certainly the things that the United States did against Castro and against Cuba in that -- back in that period during the Cold War are being talked about quite a lot, assassination attempts, Bay of Pigs, and then also the Cuban missile crisis is a really important moment in the relationship between Russia and the United States. Not only mentioning Cuba, of course.

PAUL: Jill, how is -- how is the death being characterized, though, on Russian TV there, specifically we heard the statement that you just read, that you just got, but I mean, they've been talking about this for hours now in Russia, have they not?

DOUGHERTY: They have. And again, I think it's really more nostalgia. You do have those, you know, comments about the United States and what it did during the Cold War, but there actually has been some comments -- have been comments about the bettering relationship between the United States and Cuba. And so I think they've been playing it relatively straight as a memorial to a man who was their ally.

SAVIDGE: All right. Jill Dougherty, thank you very much. It's always great to see you reporting to us from Moscow. Thank you.

PAUL: Thank you, Jill.

So you might be wondering what it's like to live at Trump Tower, particularly now since it's most famous dweller is president-elect. What does it mean for the folks that live there? We're going to take a look next.

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[09:50:59] SAVIDGE: The New York home of President-elect Donald Trump is famous for its luxury apartments and posh business suites. But living in Trump Tower is quite a different experience now that its owner is the nation's president-elect.

Jean Casarez takes a look at how Trump runs his most famous address and how his management style might affect his new job that one in the White House.

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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trump Tower has always been a high-profile apartment and business complex. But now with armed guards 24/7 there can be no doubt, this is the home of the President-elect Donald Trump, the country's next First Lady Melania and their son, Barron.

Celebrities have called Trump Tower home like Bruce Willis, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cristiano Ronaldo. Also a music superstar Michael Jackson. About 15 years ago a couple leasing the tower's penthouse got a personal call from Trump himself.

GIAMPIERO RISPO, PRESIDENT, DOMUS ARTHUR REALTY CORPORATION: Donald called the wife of the tenant and says, do you mind if I show your apartment to a dear friend of mine? She said no, not a problem, it is fine. So Michael Jackson arrives with his limousine in a separate entrance that the building has. My client said he was the nicest man around.

CASAREZ: According to the Web site, Trump Tower has over 60 floors and 263 apartments. Giampiero Rispo has represented high-profile clients at Trump Tower for over 15 years. He took us inside the building, 42 stories up, to see what your average multimillion-dollar apartment looks like.

Heading inside, golden burgundy walls, marble floors and apartment doors without letters or numbers so you need to know where you're going. He says security at the building now is so intense some of his prospective buyers are turned off.

RISPO: They start to feel that they are in a military camp. There are all kinds of forces from SWAT teams, police. It's not very pleasant to get to the building.

CASAREZ (on camera): People who live in Trump Tower actually have to go through this security right here and then even more security beyond to get to the residential entrance. That increased security began on election night and it's not set to end for a long, long time. (Voice-over): Residents are taking it one day at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most surprising thing is just how easy it's been. You know, the security is it is clearly is substantial but they just are all really good at their job.

CASAREZ: A logistical nightmare or not, Trump Tower may be setting an example for what's to come.

RISPO: If President Trump will run the country the same way he runs the building, we will be quite happy.

CASAREZ: Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.

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PAUL: Well, a relic of the Cold War with a 21st century upgrade, CNN getting an exclusive look inside the highly secretive missions to spy on ISIS from the edge of space.

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[09:57:43] PAUL: Boy, it's a highly secretive aerial spying program targeting ISIS and the mission is to gain information on their leadership and installations.

SAVIDGE: Those taking part fly at altitudes so high the pilots have to wear space suits.

Here is CNN's senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen with an incredible firsthand look.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Fighting ISIS in a spacesuit. We can only identify the pilot by his first name, Captain Steven, and by his call sign, "Meathead." He's about to embark on a high altitude reconnaissance mission in a U- 2 spy plane.

We were given rare access to the preparations, launch and landing of one of these highly secretive missions that have a clear objective, one of the pilots tells me.

MAJOR MATT, U.S. AIR FORCE: With the U-2, we're able to get out there, find those guys, track them, get that information back to the fighter types, the bomber types so when they go out there, they've got the best intel, the best information about where they are and then obviously do what needs to be done.

PLEITGEN: The U-2 can fly extremely high, more than 70,000 feet, and get pictures and other information to forces on the ground very fast. It's a Cold War era plane flying since the 1950s but its cameras and sensors have been completely upgraded.

(On camera): With as many technological upgrades the U-2 Dragon Lady remains one of America's main assets in the information gathering effort against ISIS. But of course intelligence gathering happens on many levels and much of it happens through drones like this Global Hawk which patrols in the skies above Iraq and Syria almost every day.

(Voice-over): The information from these surveillance platforms is key to helping jets from the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition to strike their targets. Support of forces combating the group on the ground in places like Mosul and Iraq. But while the U-2 can soar higher than almost any other plane it's pretty hard to land. We're in a chase car that speeds after the jet, helping to guide the pilot to the ground after an almost 10-hour mission.

Peeling himself out of the cockpit, Captain Steven says he believes the U-2 was making a major impact.

CAPT. STEVEN, U.S. AIR FORCE: Things that we can do while we're up there, as well as how often we're up there can be things for these guys. We are constantly up in the air providing that support to those who need it the most.

PLEITGEN: And the need for the U-2 services will remain in high demand. While ISIS may be losing ground the group remains both deadly and elusive.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, in the Middle East.

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